Most of the housing that European citizens live in is constructed in the post war era around the baby boom. For the majority of  people, buying a house is the single most expensive purchase in their private life. Many regions report how hard it is to find housing at a reasonable price, with cities such as Munich, Stockholm and Berlin reporting that less than 19% of the inhabitants think that it is easy to find good housing at a reasonable price. The larger a city is, the harder it tends to be to find reasonably priced housing. Cities are desirable to live in because of greater job opportunities and a greater access to higher quality education in comparison to rural areas. However, high demand means a price for land, and high-end investors are often the only actors that have means to purchase and develop property. This is exacerbated by the fact that many cities have urban planning laws that prevent developers from building on green belt land or areas that are protected for conservation. Consequently, investors try and redevelop or rebuild already existing properties, actions that heighten the price of housing. This lack of housing availability causes traditional residents of an area to depart for cheaper areas, and a new, upper class migrates in, changing the culture to their own aesthetic, the process of which we now refer to as gentrification.

​

Where should the EU and Member States go from here? The housing market has many  actors, and is difficult to regulate in a way that benefits the market as a whole and at the same time protecting the social groups that need support. What can the EU do for the poor, whose houses and apartments are desired by the rich?